6.16 The turtle returns
6.15 Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.
6.13 Albany
6.12 49 people are killed by a gunman at a nightclub in Orlando. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history, and the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
6.12 Ken Burns speaks at the commencement ceremonies at Stanford: “As a student of history, I recognize this type. He emerges everywhere and in all eras. We see nurtured in his campaign an incipient Proto-fascism, a nativist anti-immigrant Know Nothing-ism, a disrespect for the judiciary, the prospect of women losing authority over their own bodies, African Americans again asked to go to the back of the line, voter suppression gleefully promoted, jingoistic saber rattling, a total lack of historical awareness, a political paranoia that, predictably, points fingers, always making the other wrong.” But, Burns warned, what makes Trump especially dangerous is the convergence of these tendencies in a single candidate. “These are all virulent strains that have at times infected us in the past,” he told the graduates, their parents and the Stanford faculty. “But they now loom in front of us again — all happening at once. We know from our history books that these are the diseases of ancient and now fallen empires. The sense of commonwealth, of shared sacrifice, of trust, so much a part of American life, is eroding fast, spurred along and amplified by an amoral Internet that permits a lie to circle the globe three times before the truth can get started. This is not a liberal or conservative issue, a red-state, blue-state divide. This is an American issue. Many honorable people, including the last two Republican presidents, members of the party of Abraham Lincoln, have declined to support him,” Burns said. “And I implore those ‘Vichy Republicans’ who have endorsed him to please, please reconsider. We must remain committed to the kindness and community that are the hallmarks of civilization and reject the troubling, unfiltered Tourettes of his tribalism.”
6.10 Gordie Howe dies at 88
6.9 Elizabeth Warren: “Trump tells everyone who will listen that he’s a great businessman, but let’s be honest — he’s just a guy who inherited a fortune and kept it rolling along by cheating people. When that’s your business model, sooner or later you’re probably going to run into legal trouble. And Donald Trump has run into a lot of legal trouble. Ah, yes — Trump University, which his own former employees refer to as one big “fraudulent scheme.” Many of the Trump University victims ended up deep in debt — sometimes tens of thousands of dollars with no way to pay it off. Trump’s employee playbook said to look for people with financial problems — because they make good targets. He even encouraged his salesforce to go after elderly people who were trying to create a little financial security. I taught law for more than 30 years. Ask any lawyer in America and they’ll tell you that sounds like fraud. And that’s exactly what Donald Trump is being sued for — fraud, and worse, for targeting the most vulnerable people he could find, lying to them, taking all their money and leaving them in debt.
Some of those people are fighting back. Because in America, we have the rule of law — and that means that no matter how rich you are, no matter how loud you are, no matter how famous you are, if you break the law, you can be held accountable. Even when your name is Donald Trump. But Trump doesn’t think those rules apply to him. So at a political rally two weeks ago, and almost daily since then, the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States has savagely attacked Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over his case. “We are in front of a very hostile judge,” Trump said. “Frankly, he should recuse himself. He has given us ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.” Understand what this is. Trump is criticizing Judge Curiel for following the law, instead of bending it to suit the financial interests of one wealthy and oh-so-fragile defendant. Trump also whined that he’s being been treated “unfairly” because “the judge … happens to be, we believe, Mexican.” And when he got called out, he doubled down by saying “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.” He’s personally directed his army of campaign surrogates to step up their own public attacks on Judge Curiel. He’s even condemned federal judges who are Muslim — on the disgusting theory that Trump’s own bigotry compromises the judges’ neutrality. Like all federal judges, Judge Curiel is bound by the federal code of judicial ethics not to respond to these attacks. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself — exactly what you’d expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully. Judge Curiel can’t respond — but we can. We can tell his story. Gonzalo Curiel was born in Indiana — not Mexico — to immigrant parents who worked hard their entire lives and were handed nothing. He went to Indiana University for undergrad and then for law school. For thirteen years, he worked as a federal prosecutor in Southern California, fighting the Mexican drug cartels as a leader of that region’s narcotics enforcement division. He collaborated with top Mexican officials to disrupt the culture of corruption between the Mexican government and the most powerful and deadly cocaine smugglers in North America. The effort was impressive. On both sides of the border, money launderers, street gangs, and assassins were arrested and prosecuted. But that success came at great cost. Witnesses were killed. Mexican officials were murdered. Judge Curiel himself was the target of an assassination plot and spent the better part of a year living officially in hiding, under the protection of U.S. Marshals. Later, after his years of service as a prosecutor, Judge Curiel was appointed to the California state courts by a Republican governor who calls him an “American hero.” He was nominated to the federal bench by a Democratic president, and confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate. That’s what kind of a man Judge Curiel is. What kind of a man is Donald Trump? Donald Trump says “Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself.” No, Donald — you should be ashamed of yourself. Ashamed for using the megaphone of a Presidential campaign to attack a judge’s character and integrity simply because you think you have some God-given right to steal people’s money and get away with it. You shame yourself and you shame this great country. Donald Trump says “[t]hey ought to look into Judge Curiel because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace.”
No, Donald — what you are doing is a total disgrace. Race-baiting a judge who spent years defending America from the terror of murderers and drug traffickers simply because long ago his family came to America from somewhere else. You, Donald Trump, are a total disgrace. Judge Curiel is one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country, sometimes at great risk to his own life. Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself. And that is just one of the many reasons why he will never be President of the United States. And in spite of these shameful attacks, nobody doubts that Judge Curiel will continue to preside over Trump’s case as a fair and neutral judge. Because Judge Curiel is a lawyer with integrity — and that’s what lawyers with integrity do. Judge Curiel has survived far worse than Donald Trump. He has survived actual assassination attempts. He’ll have no problem surviving Trump’s nasty temper tantrums. When first asked if he would condemn Trump’s comments about Judge Curiel, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said, well, gee, you know, “Donald Trump is certainly a different kind of candidate.” After days of pressure, McConnell finally said that attacking the judge is “stupid” and that Trump should “get on script.” What script is that, exactly? And where do you suppose Donald Trump got the idea that he can personally attack judges, regardless of the law, whenever they don’t bend to the whims of billionaires and big business? Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate. He’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate. Exactly the kind of candidate you’d expect from a Republican Party whose “script” for several years has been to execute a full-scale assault on the integrity of our courts. Blockading judicial appointments so Donald Trump can fill them. Smearing and intimidating nominees who do not pledge allegiance to the financial interests of the rich and the powerful. Trump is also House Speaker Paul Ryan’s kind of candidate. Paul Ryan condemned Trump’s campaign for its attacks on Judge Curiel’s integrity. Great. Where’s Paul Ryan’s condemnation of the blockade, the intimidation, the smears, and the slime against the integrity of qualified judicial nominees and Judge Garland? Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell want Donald Trump to appoint the next generation of judges. They want those judges to tilt the law to favor big business and billionaires like Trump. They just want Donald to quit being so vulgar and obvious about it.”
6.8 Gov denounces Citizens United, proposes reforms
6.6 A star swimmer at Stanford is sentenced to six months in jail for rape. The felon’s father had written the judge asking for clemency: “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” Comment stands in sharp contrast to victim’s eloquent letter: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today,” she read in court. She then described how she decided to attend a party so she could spend time with her younger sister. “I made silly faces, let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college,” she said. “The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was. A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person. I knew no one at this party. When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing.” “I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else.” She described Turner as a predator picking off “the wounded antelope of the herd, completely alone and vulnerable, physically unable to fend for myself. …” She added: “Sometimes I think, if I hadn’t gone, then this never would’ve happened. But then I realized, it would have happened, just to somebody else. You were about to enter four years of access to drunk girls and parties, and if this is the foot you started off on, then it is right you did not continue.” “You do not get to shrug your shoulders and be confused anymore,” she said of his conviction. “You have been convicted of violating me with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol. Do not talk about the sad way your life was upturned because alcohol made you do bad things.”
6.5 Gov delivers BDS speech
6.2 Hilary Clinton slams Trump, beginning a reversal of fortunes: Because as you know so well, Americans aren’t just electing a President in November. We’re choosing our next commander-in-chief – the person we count on to decide questions of war and peace, life and death. And like many across our country and around the world, I believe the person the Republicans have nominated for President cannot do the job. Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different – they are dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas – just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies. He is not just unprepared – he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility. This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes – because it’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin. We cannot put the security of our children and grandchildren in Donald Trump’s hands. We cannot let him roll the dice with America. This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia. This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO – the countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before they strike us at home. He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008. He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture and the murder of civilians who are related to suspected terrorists – even though those are war crimes. He says he doesn’t have to listen to our generals or our admirals, our ambassadors and other high officials, because he has – quote – “a very good brain.” He also said, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.” You know what? I don’t believe him.
